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The various aspects for novel technology, a novel process of manufacturing tiles of various shapes and profiles and the novel system for manufacturing tiles are compared in the ensuing description with respective conventional processes and system known in the art. There are various methods in process of manufacturing known in the art. This specification traces the various aspects of the prior art methods, evaluation of technology, merits and demerits of various methods and processes.
Inherent problems associated with prior art tiles are as listed below:
1. Dust Attraction by tile surface
2. Rough Surface
3. Staining of tiles
Density
It is primary object of the invention to invent novel ceramic tiles and profiles which overcome the problems by creating molecular surface configuration instead of granular surface. Attraction of dust is due to pores and rough on the surface between granules. Because of molecular configuration there will not be any pores the surface of the tiles. This is achieved by milling the clay to a very fine quality and as consequence filter pressing the body are prevented from entering the tiles as there are either no pores or only micro pores which will not allow the dust to enter into tiles.
The prior art tiles have a rough surface. By having a smooth surface, the tiles are easy to clean and easy to maintain. This is one salient feature of the invention. Conventional tiles tend to stain. In this novel invented process of manufacturing tiles, the tiles so produced do not have pores or have only micro pores and this feature makes the tiles resistant to stain.
Low density of the prior art tiles result in low strength tiles. This is due to high absorption of water. Hence the novel process, by controlling the water content, produces tiles having high density and high compression strength.
The salient features of the conventional process are illustrated in FIG. 2 of the drawing.
First of the conventional process is based on hydraulic technology. The flow diagrams of the conventional process and novel process are described herein.
In the said process, raw material is either subjected to the process of grinding in ball mills, followed by storing in vats, and subsequently spray drying the material and forming to shape by hydraulic press. As an alternative the raw material is mixed with water and subjecting the mix to hydraulic process.
Further subject the material to a series of conventional operation in order to obtain ceramic products, the said sequence being described herein. 
The disadvantages associated with the conventional process bring forth tiles with poor quality in many respects viz, water absorption of tiles is very high leading to low strength. This in turn hampers the life of tiles.
In the progression of the technology the next improvement on the conventional process is based on extrusion technology. Even in this technology process, two different routes are envisaged in manufacturing tiles. Raw materials are subjected to process of grinding, spray drying before being subjected to the moisture correction as alternative raw materials are powdered in a powder mixing Arc mill (pan mill) before being subjected to the moisture correction. Subsequently the material is subjected to other conventional process route to obtain tiles.
In this another process shows in a better technology is employed. Nevertheless, controlling the parameters is a problem. Mass production of tiles is difficult. The tiles possess the properties of low absorption of water and moderate strength.
Novel process according to the invention overcome the problem associated with prior art. The invented process yield better tiles in terms of quality. That is to say that tiles possess low water absorption and high strength apart from various other physical and chemical characteristics which are enumerated in the ensuing description.
It is primary object of the invention to invent a novel process for manufacturing fully vitrified flat extruded ceramic glazed and unglazed tiles, shapes and profiles.
It is another object of the invention to invent novel ceramic tiles which possess good dimensional stability, rustic surface appearance and have no drain marks caused by glazing process.
It is another object of the invention to invent novel ceramic tiles which can be easily produced and can be of any profile and shape.
Further objects of the invention will be apparent from the ensuing description.
This invention relates to improved process of manufacturing unglazed and glazed ceramic extruded tile starting from, the raw materials, mainly washed clay, feldspar, quartz and talc in a pre-determined ratio, the said process comprises the steps wherein the raw material being loaded into the ball mills, water being charged into the ball mill to facilitate wet mixing wherein the raw materials and water are in the ratio of 60:40, grinding the batch of raw materials with water in the mill so as to form into a thick slurry/slip, the slip being transferred to a vibroscreen wherein all the impurities being removed and then the slurry passes through a magnetic separator for removal of all iron content. The cleaned slurry pumped through a filter press and the filter cake passes through cake shredder wherein the cake is broken into noodles, and noodles are taken to a de-airing pug mill wherein air bubbles of the shrouded noodles are removed. The water being added when required; the shrouded noodles are sent to extruder and extruded to pre-determined shape and thickness of tiles/pieces. The continuous ceramic column cut into the required size and the strain free pieces/tiles, will move into a Three Layer Horizontal Drier/chamber drier where the moisture in the tiles/pieces are removed. The drier is heated with the natural gas/propane at a maximum temperature-200 to 300 degree C. The dried tiles/pieces will be either glazed on the glazing line or unglazed will move further into the Roller Kiln (fired by natural gas/propane) operating at a temperature of 1200-1230 degree C. where the tiles/pieces are fired before being sorted.
The tiles so far known in the art have an inherent limitations by virtue of the manufacturing process wherein the process comprises producing spray dried ceramic body granules pressed together to form a tile. Once the file is fired, the gap between the granules create micro pores. These micro pores attract dust and stain. To obviate this problem, a novel process of manufacturing tiles is invented.
The basic idea behind this technology is to have more interlocking structure between raw materials particles in comparison to the conventional spray dried/pressed technology.
In the conventional process the globular grains are having air pockets within then which are when pressed remain as micropores within the tile body which when fired leads to comparatively higher amount of porosity. But in the novel process the interlocking of grains is achieved by compressing and dewatering the slip in filter press. This inherent interlocking of grains itself gives low porosity leading to lower fired porosity and higher strength and very fine surface quality. This is one of the essential features of our invention.
This invention also comprises a system for the manufacturing of extruded ceramic tiles of any shape by normal process and the configuration is comprised of:
a. plurality of Ball mills for grinding raw material to required specification wherein the raw material are fed into the Ball Mill through conveyer and weighing hopper along with binder and water to get the slurry.
b. a magnetic separator connected to ball mill where the iron particles contained in slurry gets separated.
c. plurality of vats wherein the slurry is in constant movement to prevent sedimentation in slurry, the said vats are connected to ball mill.
d. a pair of mechanical filter press to obtain a filter cake of clay body, the mechanical filter presses are connected to vat.
e. a pair of moisture regulator and cake shredder for shredding the filter cake to required noodle like shape, the said shredder connected to filter press.
f. a pair of de-airing pug mill removes air bubbles by evacuation which improves the workability/plasticity of clay, the said de-airing pug mill connected to cake shredder.
g. the said extruder having a pair of mouthpiece/die to enable to draw a clay body column, the said extruder connected to de-airing pug mill.
h. a pair of cutting machine being connected to extruder, the clay column is then cut into a required sizes by punching system, the said machine is connected to extruder.
i. a three layer horizontal drier being used for flat products drying with constant density, the said drier being connected to electronic cutting machine.
j. a chamber drier being used for shapes and profiles product drying, the said drier being connected to universal cutting machine.
k. a pair of glazing line is incorporated for glazing flat tiles and different kind of shapes and profiles, and a conveying line being connected to kiln for unglazed tiles, the said machine is connected to drier.
l. a pair of single layer fast roller kiln for firing the glazed and unglazed tiles, shapes and profiles, the said roller kiln is connected to glazing line and conveying line.
m. a squaring and chamfering machine to get a rectangularity of tiles, with side adjustment and feather machine is used to clean the sides of shapes and profiles, the said squaring machine is connected to roller kiln.
n. a liner and a planner device being connected to a sorting conveyor for checking the dimensional defects and planarity of the tiles.
o. an automatic sorting line being connected to squaring and chamfering machine for selection of finished tiles for palletizing and
p. an endless saw machine with semi-automatic gluing machine for border tiles and square pieces for design floors.